Julian Meyrick

THREE weeks ago, the Helpmann Awards (''the Bobbies'') landed at the Sydney Opera House with the usual mix of pizzazz, heart-felt thanks, chutzpah dress sense and long-delayed refreshment. It's an occasion when Australia's live performance ''family'' come together to eulogise the Best Of and celebrate having survived one more year. But, like most families, there are under-the-table divisions, and these came out in some pointed acceptance speeches and discreet leafleting by the artists' union on the pink granite forecourt outside.

For Live Performance Australia, the host of the awards and the umbrella organisation for most stage producers in the country, has torn up the agreement regarding the employment of overseas artists. This has been in place since 1993 and, according to the union, its repudiation was both unheralded and unwarranted. LPA's response has been schizophrenic. On the one hand: culture is transforming and companies need to respond. On the other: nothing will really change. So what is going on?

The answer requires turning from the chintzy world of award ceremonies to the cogs and wheels of modern cultural production. The LPA and the union fell out over a word change to the 1994 Migration Regulations governing foreigners workers in Australia, which led to the unilateral dumping of the agreement.

Meanwhile, performing arts centres and arts tourers talk to each other about ''the blurring of the roles between presenters, producers and audiences'', and the major organisations warily eye a rejuvenated commercial sector and energetic smaller companies keen for more of the funding pie.

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The cultural sector has grown exponentially in the past 20 years. Its delicate ecology is changing once again.

The 1993 agreement allows for the casting of foreign performers under one of four conditions: if they are a star, are uniquely skilled, are a member of a unit company, or are part of a cultural exchange. These filters make sense given that for a long time Australia was a dumping ground for third-rate foreign productions. An invasion of overseas hacks in syndicated musicals and flat-pack dramas is scarily imaginable.

But history is not the only consideration. The West Australian Ballet claims it has problems with Australia's narrow skills pool, while the Sydney Theatre Company wants overseas touring credited. The union may feel LPA is being difficult, but given the diverse needs of contemporary arts organisations, bad faith need not be assumed. The trick is to look beyond the personalities and discern the structural changes.

The high dollar makes all imports cheaper, including art. This gives independent producers and hithertofore comatose arts centres the cash to shop abroad and tempt audiences with year-round festival-style offerings. It's been 30 years since subsidised companies had to contend with a robust commercial theatre, and the shock must be considerable.

But it isn't new, and is arguably the return of a sector that should never have been allowed to languish after J. C. Williamson's collapse in 1976.

For state companies, by contrast, grant income as a proportion of revenue keeps falling. What to do? Subscription audiences, faithful but ageing, won't last forever. Costs go up and up. New opportunities + panic = easy answers. Access to overseas artists means more brochurable names and few questions from patrons used to the emulsifying realities of global culture.

But as in manufacturing and agriculture, it's not a level playing field. Regulations regarding the employment of Australian performers in Britain and the US are restrictive and unlikely to change. The lack of an agreement will affect not stars but artists trying to establish themselves or build up their profile. Given the option between an overseas actor with broad appeal and a local one just as talented but less well-known, the cost-effective choice is clear. Ninety-nine Helpmann Award winners have signed an open letter to the LPA calling for a new agreement. Any decrease in job opportunities for a profession where less than 10 per cent are usually in work will have a catastrophic effect.

For commercial producers, the situation calls for a strategic response. Their goal is profit, and they can hardly be blamed for chaffing against restrictions that affect their chances of accruing it. Quite different is the position of the subsidised companies, ones with a principled commitment to Australian culture. They should take the lead in negotiations. They must adapt to global conditions, however one-sided these may be. But they should do so with the co-operation of the Australian performers they employ and the support of the government that funds them.

To do otherwise, risks the perception they are betraying their mandate and failing to live up to their major organisation status. Now is the time for these companies to step forward and show courage, intelligence and vision.

Julian Meyrick is professor of creative arts at Flinders University. At the Helpmann Awards last month, Angela's Kitchen, which he co-wrote and directed, won Best New Australian Work.